When you talk about famously loyal and long-serving Japanese game developers, names like Shigeru Miyamoto and Yu Suzuki inevitably spring up. Miyamoto, as we all know, joined Nintendo in the late '70s and has created some of the most famous video games of all time, while Suzuki is responsible for hits such as OutRun, After Burner, Virtua Fighter and Shenmue, and while he is no longer employed by Sega, he continues to be one of the most notable people associated with the company's legacy.
That's actually a little unfair on people like Makoto Uchida, another Sega staffer who helped create some of the company's most recognisable games but doesn't have anywhere near the level of fame as Suzuki—or Yuji Naka, another ex-employee who recently enjoyed a well-publicised scrape with the law. What's amazing is that Uchida is still working for Sega today, almost 40 years after joining the company.
Uchida joined Sega in 1987, working within the company's famous AM1 division. In 1988, he was project lead on Altered Beast, one of Sega's most popular arcade releases of the decade and a game that would eventually be ported (and bundled) with the Mega Drive / Genesis in the West. While its reputation has arguably diminished over time, Altered Beast was technically very impressive for 1988, boasting big sprites, a memorable story and dazzling transformation sequences. It also established Uchida's talent for fantasy settings, something which would become even more evident with his next project.
1989's Golden Axe is perhaps the most famous game in Uchida's catalogue. Speaking to Retro Gamer magazine, Uchida stated that his aim was to challenge Double Dragon, a popular coin-op at the time, but with a unique twist which took inspiration from the likes of Conan the Barbarian.
"Technos was an experienced rival who had been working on the Kunio-Kun series, so there was no way we could compete if we did the same thing as them," he told the magazine. "I had a feeling that arcade games should be competitive against the great hit console title Dragon Quest and therefore studied the world of magic and swords, combined this with the gameplay of Double Dragon, and finally came up with the concept of Golden Axe." The first Street Fighter was also cited as an influence, as players could pull off (admittedly basic) special moves using various button combinations.
Another side-scrolling fighter followed in 1991 in the form of Alien Storm, which effectively took the core framework of Golden Axe and placed it in the near future; it was yet another coin-op success for Sega. The arcade-only Golden Axe sequel Revenge of Death Adder would iterate on the concept with some incredible visuals, making it the zenith of the entire series. Uchida then took his first steps into the world of 3D gaming with 1994's Wing War, which used Sega's powerful Model 1 arcade hardware, before mixing this experience with his affection for side-scrolling brawlers in Die Hard Arcade / Dynamite Deka, a coin-op which used the Saturn-based ST-V arcade board.
After producing Alien Front Online for the Sega Dreamcast, Uchida became the president and studio director of Sega's Shanghai studio in 2002—a position he still holds to this day. Over the past two decades, he has been credited in games such as Iron Man, Sonic Unleashed, Rise of Nightmares, Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE, Yakuza: Kiwami, Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020, Unicorn Overlord and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble.
While he would rise up the ranks within Sega, it's clear that Uchida has always maintained a desire to remain involved with development. Speaking to Sega Voice in 2004 about the Sega Ages update of Dynamite Deka, he expressed some dismay at not having been involved with the previous PS2 remake of the original Golden Axe. "I had no idea about this port," he says. "I was only able to see it when it was completed. ...It was developed without my knowledge, as the creator of Golden Axe, so I felt very sad (laughs), and I thought that I wanted to somehow port it with my own hands for the sake of the users. ...This time, I feel like my dream of making "SEGA AGES" someday, of wanting to get revenge, has finally come true."
Another interview from the same year with Kikizo sees Uchida speaking about his involvement with the ill-fated PS2 update of Altered Beast, his first game. "As a lot of people know, this has been around as a 2D arcade game before, and obviously, this version is now 3D for PS2," he explains, showing a surprising degree of involvement for someone who would only be credited as a Supervisor on the project. "Originally when it was released as an arcade game, it was very short and very simple in terms of gameplay and scenes and everything, but with the new version, players will be able to enjoy the game for ten or twenty hours. And in order to enrich this playtime, we have created some quite heavy and complex plot details to make the story deep."
Uchida may never reach the same level of fame as some of his co-workers and rivals, but he's been part of Sega's history for longer than some of its fans have been alive—and we feel that deserves some recognition.